Guide to Passenger Planes

Passenger planes are such an essential part of our lives today that it is hard to imagine a time when one could not board a plane and fly to any part of the world. There are many types and sizes of passenger planes, some of which carry hundreds of passengers. The first such aircraft in history was the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, which had electric lighting, a saloon for the passengers and a separate sleeping area. This plane was also heated for the comfort of the passengers. The first flight was from St. Petersburg to Kiev in June 1914, a flight lasting more than 14 hours and carrying 16 people.

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The first jetliners appeared in the 1940’s, when companies started to build planes for no other reason than to make travel easier. The wide-body aircraft jets are the largest of these passenger planes. There are usually two aisles in these planes with three rows of seats. The Boering 747 is one of the planes in this category. These planes are mainly used for long distance flights and carry many passengers.

Passenger planes with a single aisle between the rows of seats are called narrow-body aircraft. These planes are used for shorter distance flights and carry smaller numbers than the wide –body planes, even though there is usually room for about 150 passengers. For flights within specific regions, there are smaller planes which only carry 100 passengers or less.

On both the wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, there is a pilot and copilot and attendants. The attendants serve food and drink to the passengers and give them instructions on how to fasten their seat belts and what to do in case of an emergency.

Air taxis are passenger planes that can carry less than 20 people. Most of these planes only have 19 seats and there are planes with even fewer seats than that. These planes rarely have flight attendants and may only have a pilot.